MNFurs Community Forum Jan 7 2014

[Zepaw]

Come enjoy dinner and discuss MnFurs happenings past and future.

LOCATION:  Davanni’s

ADDRESS:  41 Cleveland Ave S  St. Paul, MN 55105

TIME FRAME:  7:00 – 9:00

WEBSITE:  http://www.davannis.com/index.asp?PageID=22&LocationID=3

 

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Old Business:

Petco Tree of Hope Fundraiser – Unico

New Business:

St Paul Winter Carnival – Ringer

Event Department update – Drake/Yarrick

Volunteer Department update

Online Chat Moderator
Web/IT – Kurst – 10 mins
BoD update
Discussion on Community meeting locations
Open Floor
Next meeting moderator

 

[Drake M.]

Per our conversation the other night, I will handle TinyChat as I know why it did not work at the last meeting…

Hopefully we can find someone to host TinyChat moving forward.

~ Drake M.

T H €  B | Z   F [] X

RETIRING JUNE 2024

MNFurs Events Department Co-Head - Events are the main driving factors of the organization.  Have an event you want brought to life?  Let us know!

MNFurs Photography Department Staff - Photography and capturing moments is what we do at our events for our community.  Let's chat about your photography needs!

Midwinter Frolic Staff ~ Photography - Midwinter Frolic is a fun winter camping event down at Whitewater State Park.  Attending and have some photography ideas?  Let's chat sometime!

Furry Migration Staff ~ Photography - A will be a wandering staff photographer at FM this year.  Want a photo or two or more?  I'll be around!

MNFurs ~ 501(c3) Non-Profit Organization

[Aerak]

Can we add to the agenda, updates from the board? We have one or two of them.  🙂

[Zepaw]

Aerak wrote:

Can we add to the agenda, updates from the board? We have one or two of them.

But of course!

[Drake M.]

Zepaw, please take the Midwinter Party off the list.

Thanks!

~ Drake M.

T H €  B | Z   F [] X

RETIRING JUNE 2024

MNFurs Events Department Co-Head - Events are the main driving factors of the organization.  Have an event you want brought to life?  Let us know!

MNFurs Photography Department Staff - Photography and capturing moments is what we do at our events for our community.  Let's chat about your photography needs!

Midwinter Frolic Staff ~ Photography - Midwinter Frolic is a fun winter camping event down at Whitewater State Park.  Attending and have some photography ideas?  Let's chat sometime!

Furry Migration Staff ~ Photography - A will be a wandering staff photographer at FM this year.  Want a photo or two or more?  I'll be around!

MNFurs ~ 501(c3) Non-Profit Organization

[Ridayah]

Sorry this took so long to get up – life kinda intervened!  Here’s the meeting notes.

Present: Drake, Rida, Kae, Yarrick, Lego, Aerak, Alkora, ,Arashiin, Pat, Zepaw, Kane, Norm, Ringer, Skisharp, Streaks

OLD BUSINESS:
Petco fundraiser – No police reports, no bodies, no arrests, so it went… well?
Decent amount of suiters, last day best, 10-11 on last day
raised good amount of money, total was about $349 last day alone, about $600 total
Uni has forum post about it
Yarrick is working on video for it
Probably will try to do it again

NEW BUSINESS:
Winter Carnival – Sent in application at end of December, around 25 waivers turned in with a few outstanding, but still need to provide
Haven’t heard back yet from parade yet, that’s normal, mid jan is probably response
Playing it by ear until they give more info
1 person expressed interest in helping get from parade end back to start
LoneWolf was the person
Pat: Does group require banner?  Yes – part of the plan, need that, and a few to carry it
Is on Jan 25th, Sat afternoon
Pat will get with Ringer about that
Non-meet week

Event department – Not a lot new
Light on events right now outside winter carnival
Looking mostly at Tier 3 events
Some talk of doing a bowling event next month
One is at Ramsey Superbowl, the other is Classic Bowl in Anoka
Better reputation with Ramsey probably

Volunteer Department –
There was a verb mismatch – Zepaw was saying “I’m going to” but board got it in translation “I already have”
Never was intent to have Zepaw feel like things being taken from him, board thought were helping him focus his talents for con and running for board
Not sure where miscommunication was happening, contacts were given
Point out that communication is a two way street, needs to be both sides
Things are sorted for now – reviewing how events and volunteers needs to be managed as developed diff. than what board thought it would
board thought: “I want to run an event, event people suggest ideas/locations, volunteers department gives list of those who want to help”
what’s happening: People find places/events themselves, volunteers themselves, mostly only need a bit of oversight help
Need to figure out, with that in mind, what our needs are
Also, volunteer hours had been original tiered system, now going to be 1:1 system, board surprised as few people had 20 hours as did
Any changes to volunteers hours management and such will be noted to the group on the website
Board will only ADD hours, never take away
want it easy to get them, never meant to be a super challenge
When done? After board retreat, by February, ideally by end of Jan depending on amount of time available to those correcting
Community concern that ‘board has ability to decide who is and isn’t elligble to run for board’
that power’s always resided with secretary, but elections committee and eventually staff (once we have area of site ready, lots of things trying to be done at once) will see too
elections committee will oversee things as well to help verify
point out board is asking community to ‘trust them’, no track record
Yes, board points out, this has never been done by groups like ours before.  They want to see how it goes, not just furry but others too.  This is the big first one to show hey, yes, can be trusted
Also past things that have been done should show trust

Break!

Web/IT – not really hearing anything about issues, so assume all is good.  Can’t fix things if don’t hear what’s broken
Looking into better chat systems for site
Also, got word upgrade to servers might be coming, so yay for that
Again, if we don’t hear things we assume everything is perfect and fine, if issues please use contact us forms, forums, or email [email protected] it will get where it needs to go
Any idea for the future, social media, site improvements, etc, please post and notify somewhere that web will see (aka via means above)
Lot more content on its way for board, volunteers, events, just being typed up and worked on
Lots of content requires lots of writing and only so many man hours
Question – we’ve heard this before, why are same questions being asked?
Rida – The questions have changed, the topics haven’t.  A year it was “what will ___ do”, now it’s details about how that’ll be done
Problem is, we need volunteers to help with a lot of this stuff and we don’t have them, takes a LOT of work
Please volunteer to help, the board is only human, only so much to be done by them while also living lives and working jobs

IRS update quick – filing is mostly done, trying to get last bits hashed out and verified before board retreat when it’ll be submitted with luck
how long til find out if good or not?  3 months
what happens if not good?  They send back with “please modify and resubmit”, and we do
How long then?  3 months again, just repeats like that

Online chat moderator – who’s willing?
Pat: What needs doing?
Need to have chat up, having camera, monitoring to toss up questions
Pat: I can do it
Pat will do it, and Drake can be fallback

Board of Directors update –
The board needs to hear from the community
We have LOTS of chances for work, and only so many things to do
we can be emailed, poked at events, etc, we are here for you
If not, you can poke staff and they know how to get ahold of the board
Also working on staff area for site and other resources
Problem right now is manhours, there’s too much that needs doing without help
Will work on a page for “we need these positions”
if you think you have a skill, volunteer
really though board exists to do boring stuff so everyone else can have fun
Board wants to hand off power, seriously, we just need people who either have the skills or can be trained in them to help it get done right

Elections info, discussed during open floor time
Rough plan, not yet approved by the board, would have been for meeting if Monday’s weather hadn’t happened
roads and weather bad, board didn’t want to go out in it and risk themselves, everyone seems to understand that sentiment
rough plan is elections and annual membership meeting at furmeet on Mar 29th
week before, early elections and special meet at Kokomo’s if possible
Absentee ballots?  Rida – if someone can’t make those, has hours, plz email [email protected] and will arrange something
Online voting asked about – Rida points out it’s completely crazy and too hard to verify, especially since we figure we’d be happy to have 50 voters total
Remember, it’s volunteer hour based
Who knows who can vote – secretary and elections committee will email those who have 20 hours, and those within 4 hours of voting rights by end of Feb
Can earn hours helping election, how about that
Will try for end of Jan, but only human
Points out original ones wanted to tap to help with elections… wound up running for board.  So still hunting
Arashiin has lots of questions, Rida asks Arashiin to help with elections
He agrees, all right, one election committee member found, now just one more
Board candidacy cutoff is Feb 28th, works well there
Why aren’t advertising about this?  Rida – I’m only one man, right now working on IRS stuff, website content for volunteers and events and board, have picnic to plan, the elections, the board retreat… only so many hours, plz, volunteer to help!  Want to, but lack of time
Point out contingent upon board approval, but this is what want to do

Next meeting place – choice of the moderator
Aerak will be running

[Author]

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